However, I'm unclear what the difference between a starter for a 1.040 beer and a 1.106 Barleywine would be. Do I double the amount of DME used, then pitch the vial of WLP001 in? I've read that the starter for a beer this big needs to end up being a gallon in size...

Sorry for the probably very basic questions... Just trying to mature my brewing processes a little!

you have a few options. The purpose of a starter is to build up the cell count of the yeast to a desirable level so they start fermentation in a timely manner as well as to make for healthier cell walls which facilitates healthier yeast. This tends to make infections harder to take hold.

When i do large beers i will usually make a small starter of 500 ml @1.040 SG and wait for it to ferment and then pitch into another larger starter of the same SG. Ive stepped up the gravity on starters also but i find that it is just a waste of DME. Some people pitch the vial into only one larger starter and i know of some who do the gallon starter in the bottom of a carboy they will be using for the beer. When fermentation done on their starter, they decant off the liquid and syphon there cooled beer onto the top of the yeast cake. This has the added advantage of not having to worry about sanitizing multiple containers.

For beers that big, I'd suggest brewing up a 4-5% lightly hopped beer. Milds or even APA's in the low hop range would work. I did that for the Russian Imperial Stout I recently brewed. I pitched straight onto the yeast cake. Its usually better to pitch some of the slurry according to Mr Malty Pitching Rate Calculator.

If you don't want to do that, the calculator says you need about a 3.35L starter. Thats just shy of a gallon. Use the same ratio Jamil describes in this article.

Quote:

Use a 10 to 1 ratio. Add 1 gram of DME for every 10 ml of final volume. (If you're making a 2 liter starter, add water to 200 grams of DME until you have 2 liters total.)

This is by weight of course.

You don't want to double the DME. A starter should always be in the 1.040 range. Remember, you are trying to make yeast, not acclimate them to a high gravity environment.

Here's the section about starters on Palmer's online How To Brew site. Unfortunately I don't see the charts about cell counts that the book has, but it's still good info.

The pitching rate calculator will tell you how many cells you should pitch for a particular OG, but not how to get that many cells. It says you want 355 billion for a 5 gallon batch of 1.106 OG. A Wyeast Activator or tube of White Labs should have about 100 billion cells. The chart in HTB says that pitching this to a 4 qt starter should give you around 305 billion. Slightly short of where you want to be, but pretty close.

Does anyone have an idea how many cells would be in the yeast cake from a previous 5G batch? I'm making a lighter beer right now, but I'm just going to try to drop my next batch (either a BW or IIPA) right onto the previous cake. I would assume it should be sufficient.

Does anyone have an idea how many cells would be in the yeast cake from a previous 5G batch? I'm making a lighter beer right now, but I'm just going to try to drop my next batch (either a BW or IIPA) right onto the previous cake. I would assume it should be sufficient.

I just put this recipe into secondary last week. I'd washed my yeast from a previous lighter beer, so I took a jar of that and mixed a starter with a bottle of Malta Goya cut 1:1 with water. Maybe it was more than I needed, but I figured overpitching was better than underpitching. It went from 1.102 to 1.020 and tasted pretty good going to secondary for such a strong beer, so no complaints here.